If That's What It Takes
by Roseprincess1
Summary: Angel and Alyssa believe the autobots they loved dead. Optimus and the others must find a way to save thier minds and prove to the girls that they still are alive. Story focuses on Optimus and Angel, number 12 in the Angel series.
1. Chapter 1

If That's What It Takes: Prolog

"FALL! FALL!" She saw him scream as the blasts cut her husband down right before her eyes.

A strange triumphant smile spread over the face of the monster as he stood up and tossed the youth he had been holding aside. She watched as he made his way over to where her one and only was huddled on the ground trying his best to fight through the pain of the wounds that, if he didn't hold still, would more than likely claim his life.

"I would have waited an eternity for this," Megatron snarled, "It's over Prime."

She knew what he was going to do, despite the fact, in her heart and soul she begged him not to. To wait, to give someone more time to get there and stop Megatron. It was the most useless thing that she had ever done in her life.

Her mental scream became a real one as she saw the only person in this, or any other world that she had ever given her heart too, force him self up on to his feet and slam his fists into Megatron's own chest.

"NEVER!" He cried at the top of his audios.

His scream suddenly merged with her own as she burst out of the night mare once again to hear the thunder from the rain clap across her roof once more.

Angel pulled her short hair, now plastered damply across her forehead out of her eyes and looked around the room. She was back home, no battles, no smoke, no puddles of spilt energon and blood. Nothing here but the horrid dreams reminding her that she had lost everything that she loved, to a monster that had no notion of pity, no sense of mercy, and no compunctions about using an innocent child as a shield.

She managed to disentangle her self from the sheets and headed out into the main room of the house. Angel stopped and looked around, not to long ago this place had been full of life. Now it was just another lifeless house that made the rain and the cold of the outside world seem that much more empty and alone. She wandered slowly across the room and her foot touched something that was on the floor. She looked down and noticed that it was her deck, the one she had lent to Prowl, scattered all over the place. Yes she remembered now, she had thrown them against the wall when she realized that Prowl was just one more person that she would never see again. Friends, comrades, and her lover, all lost to the darkness that had consumed her world.

She stepped over the cards and headed in the direction of the porch, the stone steps where they had sat and held one another. Where he had held her in his arms and promised that she would never be alone and he would be there for her forever.

She stepped out on to the porch and looked out into the rain for a very long time. In a flash it all became too much for her and Angel collapsed on to ground and lay there crying into her arms.

"Dammit Orion," She managed to gasp, "Why did you have to die?"

Half way across the country another young woman, was having the opposite reaction. She had for a long time been crying like Angel, but now Alyssa was out of tears. She was in her car, and was doing the best she could to get as far away from the truth that she possibly could. There was nothing more for her back in the other direction and there was no way that she was going to try and sort through the hurt the way her friend was trying. No it was much better that she was here and now, speeding down this lonely desert highway, getting further and further away from the fact that the man she had loved with all her heart and soul had been eviscerated. He had been slashed open by those monsters and she had stood there, the helpless little human, as he had bled out. Stood there and had been unable to do anything at all to stop him from slipping away from her forever.

She probably should have stayed back at the farm and been with Angel, the other girl was grieving just as hard as she was. But right then, to be completely honest, she had nothing left in her that would let her bring comfort to any one but her self. The further from her home she drove, the more she realized that she didn't even have the capacity to give her self comfort. So all she could do was try to escape, and that's exactly what she was doing. That she was escaping from the ruins of the city that she should have been happy in, from the ruins of the life that should have been just beginning, leaving only the trail of dust behind her as any proof that she had ever existed at all.

Some day both of them, she thought, some day they would find a way to move on. A way to make life better, for now though all that mattered was that the past was back there and she was heading ahead. All that mattered…


	2. Chapter 2

If That's What it Takes: Part 1

I stepped out of the command center and took a look around trying my best to locate the two of them. I had walked into Wheeljack's laboratory to talk to him and had found the place destroyed, torn apart by a broken heart looking for some sort of solace. After seeing this I had gone looking for Prime and like Wheeljack he was no where to be found. I walked out into the ark and all around me I could see the evidence of what had happened. A loud clang came from down the hall and I turned to see the yellow twin, Sunstreaker, literally put his fist through the wall.

"Calm down Sunny!" His brother pleaded.

"Don't tell me to calm down dammit!" He snarled, "They had no part in all of this, and that slag pile had no right to drag them into it!"

I made my way farther down the hall way and came upon another room, almost as large as the command center. In this were the infamous dinobots, the youngest of them, the female slash, lying in her beast form looking like she'd lost her best friend.  
"Slash want go play?" one of the others, Sludge, came up and nosed her slightly.

"Slash not want go play, Slash want ALY!" she wailed at him.

I turned away from this scene yet again and continued my search for the missing commander and engineer. I did not manage to get more than 100 meters before I yet again came across evidence of the effect that this tragedy had upon this base. This time it was the tactician Prowl, sitting in front of a screen, going over and over what looked like security footage from a human filling station. Jazz appeared behind him and placed his hand on the other young mech's shoulder.

"Prowl man," He shook his head.

"Don't Jazz."

"Prowl, the kittens wouldn't want you like this." A pleading look crossed his face. "Come on man, you need to get some recharge or were gonna be peeling you off the floor with a spatula."

"Jazz," Prowl looked up, "There should have been something we could have done. They should have had an escort! They…" He suddenly broke off and forced him self to get his emotions under control.

"They would want you to take care of your self too," Jazz snapped off the screen and hauled Prowl up. "Come on."

I shook my head softly and finally made it to the front of the base and headed out to continue looking for those who were lost. It took me another few moments until I finally located Optimus, of Wheeljack however there was no sign.

He was standing on a near by ridge looking out into the distance, his optics a strange mix of loss and anger. It was obvious to me that he, like every one else in the base below us he blamed him self for what had happened. He blamed him self and was angry that he had been, or rather saw him self as having been so lax that they could take the most important thing to in this world away from him.

I don't know if I made a great deal of noise as I approached him, or if he was just hyper sensitive at that point. But some how he knew I was coming and turned to face me.

"Alpha," He nodded respectfully then looked off and motioned into the distance, "Your too late, he's already left."

I looked out and saw a trail of dust across the desert getting smaller and smaller by the second. There was only one person it could be considering the way he was driving at that point.

"Wheeljack?" I asked.

"That's him," Optimus looked back in that direction, "He's gone to look for Alyssa."

"And you?" I prompted.

"And me?" He looked down at something that he had been holding from the moment he realized what it was after it had been tossed to him. "I'm trying to decide what to do."

I followed his gaze down and focused on what he had in his grasp. What it was looked on at first like a bit of rope, on closer inspection what it really was became painfully obvious. It was a braid. I shook my head as I followed his gaze downward, and then raised my eyes up to meet his once more. Some one had told me that due to the wishes of the owner of the braid he had begun to wear his battle mask, less and less. Now how ever it was firmly in place and all that I could see was the pain from his spark reflected in his eyes.

"She has to be out there some where Optimus," I turned my gaze out to look over the sand hills; "If she were dead you would have sensed it."

"I know that," He clenched his fist again, "that's what makes this so hard Alpha. She's out there, some where. She believes that I'm dead, and there's not one damm thing I can do about it."

"You could go and question him again," I raised one optic ridge at him.

"Do you really think it would do any good," he turned back to me, "I let the twins have him and he still refused to tell me what was going on."

I had to admit that the leader of the Autobots had a valid point there. Megatron and several of his henchmen were now held captive in our very own holding cells, and had been, by more than one member of the crew, been "Debriefed". Their reactions had been less than cooperative. So far the only thing that it had resulted in, was forcing both Wheeljack and Optimus to again and again relive the moment that they had found out exactly what had become of their mates.

When I had learned what had happened, though it had taken a great deal of arrangement on my part, I had come to offer what support I could. What I had found out was that on the morning of the disappearance the two of them had awoken to find both the girls and Angel's truck missing. This had been a normal enough occurrence and they had at first thought nothing of it. They had believed that the girls were sure to return once what ever errands they had to do were completed. By that afternoon it had become plain that the girls had not gone into town to simply retrieve something for the farm or to fill their vehicle with petrol. This had basically resulted in wide spread panic, to varying degrees in all of the ranks that were at the mini base on the farm.

So all of them had dispatched to go and look, hoping that it would be something simple and they would locate the girls stuck on a back road somewhere with a flat tire and a set of smoldering tempers. The rest of the day wore on and it had become more and more plain that this was not the case. Then came the moment when they entered the filling station at the other end of town and had found both the attendant long ago dispatched and Angel's missing truck. It was there, filled with gas, but empty of either of the women.

Jazz had managed to get his hands on the security tape, and the truth of what had really happened to the missing girls had been revealed. I would be lying if I said that both Prime and Wheeljack had not gone immediately to the Nemesis to try and confront Megatron and demand that both Angel and Alyssa be returned to them. The ship however had been completely vacated and anything that could have pointed out where the Decepticons might have gone with the girls had been removed and taken with them.

This had been nearly three months past; with in the last 48 hours the Decepticons had resurfaced and literally marched right out front of the ark to announce to those inside just what they had done. What they had done turned out to be one of the most horrid things that any creature with a soul could have come up with to inflict upon another's mind. The confrontation between Megatron and Optimus was etched into my memory and I supposed it would be for the rest of my life. I had seen many horrible things in my life time, but never had I ever witnessed any thing this atrocious. Destroying their world, ruining a young man's life and forcing him into a form of his destiny not of his choosing, demanding that every one and any one around them bow to their will, was all nothing compare to what was confessed.

Optimus had come charging out of the base and stood there glaring at his enemy. More than ready to take his head off if that meant that his mate would be returned to him.

"Where is She Megatron?" He snarled.

"Are you talking about your flesh female Prime?" The Decepticon leader smirked.

"I told her and I told you that neither of you would ever see each other again. I have made arrangements that will see to that."

He paused and looked down at his feet and I noticed a strange human step out from behind him. Megatron smirked again and then spoke to this human.

"Isn't that right Doctor Archevil?" he asked the man.

The doctor proceeded to make a very melodramatic bow and then he himself smirked at Prime. "Oh indeed. Your wife is very lovely Prime, as shame that _you_ will never see her _alive_ again."

"You…" Optimus' eyes widened, "You killed…"

"Oh no," The doctor added, "When I mean you will never see her Alive again, I am quite literal. To her you are dead, and there is nothing any of you or yours can ever do to change that."

Next to Prime, Wheeljack had finally snapped himself out of his shock and realized that he knew this person, "You're that yoyo that came up with the chip implants aren't you?"

"Hmmm… Most perceptive of an amateur," He smiled evilly again, "Your mate was lovely as well. I made sure and make similar arraignments for her."

That was when something must have snapped in Wheeljack, because it was suddenly taking my self and three other's to hold him back and keep him from ripping the head off the human scientist.

"Megatron," Prime finally managed to growl to him, "How could you have done what you say you have done?"

"Human minds are so easy to manipulate in the end Prime," He shook his head. "She was so afraid of loosing you that her mind accepted the image with out any prodding at all. Perhaps this female doesn't love you as much as you think she does?"

"Shut up Megatron," Optimus yelled back. "You still have no proof that any of this is any thing more than an elaborate bluff."

"If its proof you want Prime then I will be more than happy to oblige you."

From out of some where Megatron produced something and proceeded to toss it in the direction of the Autobot leader. It landed at Optimus' feet with a soft thud and left him standing there staring at it with utter and complete disbelief in his eyes for more than a few moments.

"Take a good long look Prime," Megatron sneered at him. "Because that's all that is left of the woman you loved. You're just a memory to her."

As we all watched, the shock changed into utter rage and ten nano clicks later we were in the process of having to keep Optimus from choking the life out of Megatron. The thing that Megatron had tossed at the feet of his enemy had been nothing less than the braid of long dark red hair that had once been a part of the woman that Optimus loved more than anything else. It was the hair that had once belonged to his human wife, his beloved Angel.

Some how the rest of the Autobots had managed to keep from killing Megatron and his scientist long enough to get them down to the brig and leave them there. There was however a lot left said an undone. It was plain from the condition of Wheeljack's lab that he had done all he could think of to find some way to save his mate. I was more than sure that he had left that information with Ratchet and the feat could be duplicated with Angel. This however was dependant upon finding the girl and making sure that she was brought back to the ark with as little mental trauma as possible for her.

In trying to go and find her in the condition that she was in mentally Optimus knew that he ran the risk of endangering her mind and perhaps damaging it permanently. So now here he was trying to decide if it was worth the risk to try and get her back or was it better for her that he let her go and live her life as best as she possibly could.

"You know if you go after her there is a danger that she may never recover from the shock." I told him snapping Optimus back to reality.

"I know, that's the problem that I'm having," he sighed deeply at me, "is it worth it to try and get her back."

"Let me ask you this Prime," I turned away from the desert to face him, "Would she be any less willing to take that risk for you?"

"No," he shook his head, "She wouldn't. Angel would never give up on me no matter what might happen. She didn't give up on me when we were back home and she learned the truth about my past." He turned to look at me, "And she didn't give up on our love when I learned the truth about what really happened to her."

"There is your answer then Optimus Prime," I informed him. "If the lady that you so dearly love would never abandon you to your fate no matter what it might be. Then if you truly do love her, you must be the same way."

Some how that seemed to resolve a lot of the conflict that I had seen in his soul. I nodded to my self satisfied that he had come to the correct conclusion in this matter and so I made a decision my self.

"My friend," I put my hand on his shoulder and looked him in the face, "I was there when you and the first woman you ever loved needed me. I will be here for you now that you and your new mate need me as well. I have decided to remain here on earth until this conflict with Lady Angel is resolved."

"Thank you Alpha Trion," He bowed his head to me, "you have my gratitude forever."

"Now then," I motioned for him to head back into the Ark along with me, "We must find out where Megatron has hidden your mate and then we must find her. I fear that there is more that may have happened to the girl than any of us might realize."

He nodded once more and proceeded to follow me into the base and start getting ready to do what had to be done to persuade Megatron and his followers cough up the information that we needed.

What none of us knew at the time was that the very young lady in question was suffering in more than just mind. Angel for the third time that day was dragging her self out of her rest room and managing to some how make it back to her living room and couch before collapsing and staring up at the ceiling. Her face was pale and her dark hair clung to it making her look less like a girl, and more like a walking corpse. She managed to turn her head on her couch and look at something that was lying on the table across from her. It was the piece of the matrix that Optimus had given her as their enguagement present. She reached, for the thing and slowly ran her hand along the chain. In her mind the gem in the center, the sky blue jewel that signified that it was still active and alive was dark and cold. In truth, in the real world that her mind refused to let her see, the moment she touched the chain the gem blossomed into brilliant blue light, throwing strange shadows across the room and forcing the gloom from the continuing rain away from the girl for just a moment.

Far away, back at the ark, the moment the gem broke into life Optimus Prime lifted his head from the map the two of us were looking at and gasped. He froze for a moment and then managed to get out one quick word that made little sense to me at the time. However, for finding the girl this one word meant everything.

"Beattyville."


	3. Chapter 3

If That's What It Takes: Part 2

I had no idea what Prime meant by this strange word, but I had a feeling that it was more than a little connected to the whereabouts of his missing mate. He stood there for a moment longer after uttering the word and then headed over to the nearest console of Teletran 1.

"Does this mean that you have an idea of where Angel might be?" I asked.

He looked up from what he was doing and nodded, "I can't explain what I just felt Alpha. Somehow the connection between Angel and my self had been cut off."

"So I was correct then? You do have a connection to her?"

He nodded again, "I did." He looked off for a second, "When she vanished something or someone managed to shut it off. Just now however, I felt it again for just a second."

"And?" I prompted, "There's more that you're not telling me about this."

"I don't know," he stopped and stared at the screen for a moment, "I don't know why someone would send her back to her own home after doing this to her. I can't deny my instincts though, and that's whey they tell me she is."

I thought about that for a moment, "Sometimes the best hiding place is in plain sight, Prime."

"Exactly," he agreed.

That was when I noticed that he had found what he was looking for. It was the state that I had been told his human mate had been born in. There was the oddest phenomenon taking place as we sat there and looked at the screen. To the casual observer it would appear that the state was merely suffering from an intense rain storm. To someone that was looking however they would notice that the storm wasn't moving. I have noticed that normal weather patterns on this world, flow and move in time with the rotation of the world and the currents that its atmosphere takes. This bit of precipitation though remained firmly fixed over the eastern half of the state.

"That's not natural," Someone one commented as they moved up behind me to take a look at what Prime had found.

"That's the point Ratchet," Optimus told him, "And that's just what we were looking for."

The medic took a closer look at the state and the location of the storm.

"That things literally sitting right on top of her home town," I could almost hear his optics widen, "You don't think they would?"

"I intend to find out," Prime shot back.

I continued to watch as the leader spoke into his communicator and a few moments later Prowl and Jazz appeared.

"Prime?" Prowl asked as he showed up.

"Prowl, I need you to activate the command protocols for the satellite base that we left on the farm."

"What?" the police car blinked at him for a few second, "Why do you need that?"

"I'm playing on a hunch here, if I'm correct here I think I may have just found where the Decepticons hid Angel."

"Come again?" Jazz gasped.

"Take a look," Optimus motioned to the screen.

Both the tactician and the special ops took a look at the screen for a few seconds. Then the two of them seemed to just materialize at their stations. A few seconds later Prowl looked up with the strangest look on his face, then tried his actions again, then looked up one more time.

"Prime," He called.

Optimus walked over and looked at the readings that his second kept getting from the satellite base and I swear that I saw the mech smile under his mask. This of course prompted me to go over and investigate just what he had found that confirmed his belief that this was the place his human wife had been secreted away too.

"What did you find?" I questioned.

"Nothing," Prowl told me, "Absolutely nothing. There's no signal coming from the remote command center, or any of the stations at the base we set up there. It's like the thing has been …" he trailed off.

"Has been completely demolished?" Prime finished.

"Exactly," Prowl nodded, and was quiet for a moment. Then, "You mean to tell me we missed THIS?"

"Missed what?" Jazz asked from where he was.

He looked at what had been found for a while and then nearly smacked him self in the visor. "Now tell me why we didn't look into this sooner?"

"I don't think there are any good reasons or excuses," Prime told them both, "Its just this simple though. They hid her in the one place we wouldn't look, and then took steps so that if something went wrong…"

"She wouldn't be able to contact us," Prowl stated "Now that storm makes sense. It would keep any communicators that they might have missed from working, any but the ones at the mini base. Which is why they had to destroy the base as well."

"So now what?" Jazz asked.

"Now we have to go and get some information about what's going on out there and then once we have enough, we go and get my wife back."

"There is one small problem with that," I felt compelled to point out to Optimus.

"That is?" Jazz looked at me.

"Its very simple Jazz," I motioned in the direction of the brig, "We all know that Megatron isn't going to talk to any of us."

"Who said anything about asking Megatron?" Prime looked at me and once again I could swear that he was smiling under his mask.

One hour later, Prime, Prowl, Jazz, and myself had all either activated their transmats or been subjected to the manual one and all of us were standing out side of the human detention center. This was the place where Prime had asked the human authorities to keep Dr. Archeville until Angel could be found and they could decide what else needed to be done with the vile man. Now as we walked into the place human sized it was clear to me that Prime was going to get what he wanted from this man weather the good Doctor choose to cooperate or not.

"Good to see you again," The Dr. snarked as he looked out from his cell. "So tell me have you found her yet?"

I watched Prime's eyes narrow to a pair of sapphire slits, "How'd you do it?"

"Do what Prime?" The man continued, "Oh there are so many things that went on. Which one are you referring to?"

I have never in the time that I have known the mech seen Optimus Prime loose his temper at anyone. What makes him the person he is can be chalked up to the fact that he tries to remain compassionate and even tempered with the most heinous foes that he has had the luck to encounter. This time however, the human behind the bars managed to hit the right button and the next thing any of us that had accompanied Prime knew, his hand was stuck through the bars and clamped firmly around the neck of the Doctor.

"You have ten seconds to tell me how you made the storm and how to shut it off or I start squeezing," He paused for a second, "ONE…"

The Doctor who up until that time had been arrogant and oh so very sure of himself, managed to completely loose it at that point, "OKAY!" He croaked. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know! Just don't kill me!"

Prime let go of the man and let him drop back into his cell, "Well? Get on with it."

"The storm was created by a device called a Weather Dominator," Archevil coughed, "I got the plans from an old acquaintance of mine in the arms market. It can produce a specific weather pattern indefinitely. I set a small one up in the basement of the girl's house. We wanted to keep the communicators from working and use the weather to demoralize her even further."

"So she is on the farm?" Prowl finally managed.

"She's been there for almost a month," Some of the Doctor's arrogance returning. "I imagine she's had quite a bit to think about during all of that time as well."

"You are the slimiest…" Jazz began.

But the doctor was no longer looking at either of Primes subordinates at this time.

"You know Prime, even if you find her. Even if she hasn't taken her own life to be with you, even IF you manage to some how undo the mind alterations from the implant," He paused and a truly evil smile spread over his face, "There are some things that you will NEVER be able to change."

Optimus froze for a moment and then turned and looked back at him, "I was going to let the human authorities have you, put you into their justice system and let them prosecute you as the laws of her planet deemed fit. But now," Prime's eyes narrowed again, "Now I'm going to let you sit right there until I get Angel back. Then I'll let her decide what's going to become of you."

"If you get her back that is," He shot one more time.

"That's what sets me apart from people like you and Megatron," He told him, "I believe she's strong enough to find her way home no matter what."

All three of them remained perfectly quiet until we got out side of the human detention center. The moment they were out of sight of the humans and out of range of any listening devices that it was possible the Doctor might have had on his person. Prime turned in the direction of the base and activated his comlink.

"Coming in loud and clear chief," I heard Ironhide drawl, "You found out where they are holding the lil lady?"

"She's right where we suspected she'd be Ironhide," Prime told him, "I need you to collect Ratchet and rendezvous with our coordinates."

"Be there in five, Boss," The other mech answered. "We're gonna get her back if we have to rip that whole town a new one."

Prime shut down the comlink and spent a few moments going over what he planned to do with both Prowl and Jazz as we continued to wait for the others to meet us there. I stood watch for the others for a few seconds and then I noticed that Optimus was relatively alone, and so I spoke with him.

"Do you think getting her back will be this easy?"

He shook his head at me, "I don't think anything about it will be easy. If I know Megatron, he's more contingency plans out there than anyone of us would know how to cope with."

"Yet you are still going through with this?" I questioned.

"Yes Alpha," he nodded, "As truly foolish as this might seem, I have every intention of getting Angel back here at my side no matter what."

I nodded at him and then smiled, "Do not take my interest for questioning your authority Prime." I informed him, "I only wanted to make sure that you believed in what you were going to do here."

"If he didn't believe in it," Jazz suddenly chimed in, "Then the rest of us would for him Sir."

"He's right." Prowl added, "Miss Angel means a lot to all of us Sir, not just Prime. Leaving someone as important as her alone when they need someone to help them is just plain illogical, we have to help her."

I would have said more to the young mechs before me at this point had the rest of the search party not chosen to show up at that moment. Optimus spent a few moments going over the details of what he had learned and how we should go about getting into a position to rescue his mate. When all were agreed on what would be done in certain eventualities, my self included, we assumed our various alternate modes and began to make our way across country to find what Prime had lost.

Unfortunately for all of us, this was exactly what Megatron had planned. The moment news got back to him that Prime had left the Ark compound he took his own steps to procure his release from the brig and make his attempt to stop us. The means by which he did this proved to be every single Gestalt that he had in his employee showing up at the ark all at once. When several mechanoids that big show up and begin wreaking general havoc, it is safe to say the last thing on any one's mind is the condition of the brig and how to keep the person that we have contained in said facility from escaping.

This turned out to be a rather costly mistake. This being due to the fact that while several of the gestalts kept the main troops that were still at the ark occupied, two others located where the brig was in relation to the outside of the mountain and literally began ripping the side of the volcano to bits until they had reached what they had been looking for. No one knows exactly how Megatron got his fusion cannon back, but there was a moment when all the fighting ceased as a crimson blast tore the front side of the mountain off and Megatron appeared at the front entry way of the Ark.

"DECEPTICONS!" He called, "Your goal here was to procure my freedom! Which you have done! Now we must go and prepare to take care of the rest of the plan as it has been set up! Before the final cycle of this Day ends, Optimus Prime and his human mate will both be reduced to ashes by our hands!"

He flew into the sky and all of those who had been attacking the Autobots literally stopped in their tracks and followed their leader into the sky in search of Prime and Angel. Everything that had been set up for this plan of Megaton's was beginning to fall into place and all any of us could do at that point was rescue Angel and pray we had the power to fight off the darkness that was quickly swallowing up our world.


	4. Chapter 4

If That's What It Takes: Part 3

I had no idea that the home of the human woman that Prime had given his heart to was so far away from where the Ark was located, so it came as a complete and utter shock to me how long it took to get to the girl's home even at the considerable speeds we were reaching. I must admit that it was perhaps just my personal perspective at the time however. It seemed to me that a great deal of time was being wasted, and that there must have been some faster way to reach her. Granted there was the fact that all of us who made up the search party were forestalled when we learned that Megatron had escaped from the Ark at the hands of the gestalts that he commanded.

There was a moment of indecision that passed over the faces of all that were present here. I could tell what they were considering doing and the choice that all of them specifically Optimus had to be facing at that point. So I attribute what happened as they all fought with this decision, to an act of Primus himself.

"Look," Smokescreen told them from the other end of the communications link, "We all knew that this was probably going to happen anyhow. What you have to think of now is getting there and making sure that he doesn't get his hands on Miss Angel a second time."

"Are you positive?" Prime asked.

"Don't even go there," This time it was Brawn shoving Smokescreen out the way and taking his place, "Just get there and get the girl. We can handle it here."

"But…" He kept trying.

"I'm not discussing this any more," The mech on the other end of the line told him. "This conversation is over, Prime. Go get your lifemate."

With that the line promptly cut off and left Optimus staring blankly at the scene on his communicator.

"Well that settles that," Ironhide chimed. "C'mon Boss, you heard the man. Let's go get her back."

So shortly there after we were all back out on the highway leading deeper into the green heart of the Appalachian mountains, in search of this girl. Each one of the members of the search party committed to finding this young woman and putting her back where she belonged in their world. Every single one of them valued her for their own reasons and all of them willing to do whatever it took to save her.

It was a scant two hours later when we reached the town and saw that the place was indeed shrouded in layers of storm clouds and sheets of rain. The streets of the town being near a river were quite flooded and it was apparent that most of the residents of this area had taken it as a good idea to leave and seek drier conditions some where else. To wit, Beattyville Kentucky was little more than a ghost town at that point. This of course was, in all truth what we had been hoping for. The less people there were there to see what we were about to do the less of a chance there was of the Decepticons being alerted to the fact that we had made it here to find the girl.

Twenty minutes more and the search party was setting up to go and track down the wayward mate of Optimus Prime.

"Okay here it is," Ratchet turned to face Prime and held out his ion cannon to him, "This thing has been modified to fire actual Ion charges not concentrated blasts."

Jazz looked around Prime's shoulder as the leader checked to make sure the weapon was in working order, then looked back at Ratchet and then back at the gun.

"Okay," He paused, "Now you two wanna tell the rest of us what that means in basic?"

Ratchet paused and made a face at the porche's and then picked up the data pad he had been working from.

"Its pretty simple actually," He pointed to a set of figures, "You ever seen "The Empire Strikes Back?"

Jazz drew back from the Medic and gave him a look that plainly said "you have got to be kidding me."

Then he finally managed to give Ratchet a nod, "Yeah I've seen it."

"Good," Ratchet continued, "Remember the bit where they use Ions to knock out some of the ships? Well it's actual electronic process. It's also the most efficient and least painful way to take out the implant chip that's responsible for the alterations in Angel's memory."

"So what," He looked in the direction of Prime's gun again, "He's got to shoot her?"

I took one look at the appalled expression on Jazz's face and shook my head, choosing that moment to come over and give Ratchet the support he might need.

"If what I'm hearing is correct Jazz," I took the data pad from Ratchet and looked it up and down, "Physically it won't hurt her in the least. The worst she'll feel is like getting zapped by static electricity."

"Pretty much," Ratchet nodded.

"That's not what I'm worried about man." Jazz shook his head

"Then what are you worried about?" Prime asked.

Jazz got a blank look and then put his face in his hand for a moment and then looked back at them."

"Basically what you telling me is this, in order for Optimus to save his Lifemate, he's got to shoot her?"

The medic got a look on his face and seemed to fade for a moment as if this eventuality had not occurred to him when he set up this way of neutralizing the chip. Once again I decided to offer what wisdom I had in this instance.

"Jazz," I looked at him, "this is the only way that he can save her without hurting her physically. Granted it's not the easiest choice to make for Prime, but I wouldn't underestimate him if I were you." I looked at Optimus, "You are willing to do it for Angel aren't you?"

"I am willing to do whatever I have to in order to make sure that she's safe Jazz." He put his hand on the younger mech's shoulder, "Thank you for worrying about me my friend. This is going to be the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life, so I want to thank you in advance for being there for me and for her."

Jazz nodded and squeezed the hand that was on his shoulder, "I promise that if you need someone to talk to after it's all over Prime, I will be there to listen."

At that point Ironhide stuck his head into the garage we were using to set up and nodded.

"We got a bead on her chief," He motioned in the direction of the farm. "The motion sensors have picked up movement in the house. Someone or Something is alive in there. My guess is, its Miss Angel."

"Alright then people," Prime said to get everyone's attention, "This is probably not going to be the easiest thing that any of us have ever done. It is however one of the most important, at least to me."

"So?" Prowl chimed in, "Let's get a move on then! The longer we wait the harder this is going to be."

"Boy's got a point there," I had to agree.

Prime nodded to me and the whole search party moved out in the direction of the farm. It took a lot longer to get there than any of us would have anticipated due to the condition of the town. Most of the roads that led out to where she was staying were flooded and those that weren't were for the most part reduced to giant bogs of muck. To say that it was slow going was something of an understatement. Eventually however we did manage to cross them and slowly but surely, a search party of muck splattered Cybertronians made their way up the mountain road.

There were however some things that we were not counting on when we got there. The foremost was the reaction that we were about to receive from the Lady in question. The fact of the matter was, this woman believed that a full half of the search party members that were looking for her, were now nothing more than burnt out corpses. So it should have been plain to us that she would be shocked at the very least to see us when we arrived.

Shocked turned out to be an understatement. The moment all of us assumed our human sizes we realized that there was something amiss about the house. For one thing it looked slightly unkempt and the outside door hung at a slight angle . Secondly none of the lights in the place were on, it looked just as dead as the rest of the town. That is probably what caused us to be as careless as we were.

Upon seeing this place looking dead the search party over reacted and charged into the house doing its best to get to Angel in case she had done something like attempt to end her life with her own hands. This however was not what happened, it was the exact opposite. Ironhide rounded one corner of the hallway and was in the process of calling out for the girl when we heard it.

"ANG…." He stopped in mid sentence and staggered back one hand clapped over his left optic.

Standing there in the living room having just placed one round in his head was the missing person we had all come to save. Only she didn't look like she needed help, for that matter she looked about ready to kill. This assumption was proven right the next second when she opened fire on Ironhide and emptied a full clip in his direction as he did his best to scrabble out of the woman's way.

"NO!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. "Get away from me! YOU'RE NOT REAL DAMMIT!"

Now she proceeded to turn her attentions to Prowl as she ejected one of the clips from her rather large firearm, and slapped another one into its place.

"How dare you come here?" She snapped, "How dare Glavatron send monsters like you here to torment me!"

She cocked the gun and lined up her sights on Prowl. The police car for his part was doing his level best to calm the girl down.

"No one sent us Miss Angel! We're really us!" He tired.

"DON'T," She yelled again, "I saw you die! I saw Megatron blow you to bits! Now his successor sends you THINGS here to make my life even more miserable!" She pulled the trigger and one of the armor piercing rounds proceeded to bury its self in Prowl's shoulder the same way it had Ironhide's eye.

"We're not illusions!" Jazz insisted as he took Prowl's place so Ratchet could check him along with Ironhide.

"STOP IT!" She wailed, "Wasn't killing all of them bad enough! Now you have to haunt me too!"

I watched as she kept those in front of her at gun point. She however, completely forgot that some one could come in the back door and come up behind her, which is exactly what Optimus choose to do . I saw the girl realize that something was behind her and then proceed to freeze in her tracks.

"Angel please calm down!" he pleaded.

In turn she spun to look at him and let loose with a scream that surly must have turned the energon in every one's veins to pure ice. Then as she drew a breath to let loose with yet another wail, she leveled the gun point blank in Prime's face and pulled the trigger.

If Optimus Prime had been one nanosecond slower in his reaction time he truly would have been dead. It was clear to me that this woman was an expert marks man and had loaded her weapon with something that could more than get through the armor that any given Cybertronian had chosen to wear.

He grabbed her arms and somehow managed to push them out of the way before the shot rang out. However either the girl was in weaker condition than he had anticipated or he accidentally used more force than he had meant to because she wound up lying on the floor, gasping for breath and trying get herself under control. Optimus moved in her direction and held out his hands to her as if trying to help her calm down. Still it seemed the girl was convinced we were somehow illusions sent to torment her by the Decepticons and so she spun around and pointed the firearm at him.

"Please stop!" She begged, "Please just go away and let me mourn in peace!"

"Angel," Prime told her, "I'm not fake," He clasped both of his hands around the one that she was holding the gun with. "Does this feel like and illusion?"

For one second I thought that some how he might have gotten through to her as something flashed in her eyes. Then the woman jerked back from him and pulled the trigger on her gun. For a few stunned seconds Prime looked down at the hole in his shoulder and then turned to gape at the girl.

"Please just leave me ALONE!" She shrieked, her desperate cry trailing off into another banshee like wail.

This time however she didn't wait until someone came closer to her or made any other moves to try and get her attention. She jerked away from Prime and lunged out of the doorway heading into the sheets of rain and gloom that surrounded her house and home town. As the girl disappeared into the darkness outside, those of us in the search party began to collect our wits.

Optimus was about to charge out the door and go after the girl when he felt his Medic clamp his hand down on him and drag him back into the house.

"Nuh Uh, Boss Bot," Ratchet shook his head, "Not 'til I get a look at this." He motioned to the wound on Optimus' shoulder.

"What happened?" Prime actually managed.

"There's more going on than we gave the good Doctor Archevil credit for. Apparently he found a way to do more than just alter her memories. Apparently Angel has been programmed to attack any of us that showed up here."

"How?" Prowl asked from where he was sitting next to Ironhide.

"From what I could guess," Ratchet told us as he slapped a patch on Optimus' shoulder. "She's been programmed to think that anyone who fits the parameters of those she saw "killed" is an illusion and was sent here specifically to torment her."

Optimus flexed his shoulder to make sure it was in working order and then turned back to the medic. "So how does this affect what we came here to do?"

"It doesn't" Ratchet replied, "The only way to shut off the programming is to get hold of her. And the only way to get a hold of her it's to shut down the chip with the Ion charges from you weapon."

Prime nodded, "Stay here and take care of Ironhide and Prowl."

He then proceeded to head out side to go and find where the woman he loved had disappeared to.

"Prime," He stopped and looked back at me, "Don't go out there to find her alone. It's not going to do either of you any good."

"I have to find her Alpha." He told me.

"But you don't have to go look for her alone," I looked at him, "Please allow me to accompany you."

He took measure of me for a moment and then nodded. After leaving instructions with the rest of search party, the two of us set out into that fake storm looking for a small spark of life that was as slipping further and further away as we forged ahead doing the best we could to try and find her.


	5. Chapter 5

If That's What it Takes: Part 4

We stepped off the stone steps and out into the gloom and began the search for the very same young human woman that had just taken shots at all of us. Prime was staring out through the mist trying to catch some sight of her when I noticed something. The foliage that was growing on the ground around the place was rather long at this point and as a consequence of this clearly showed the places where some one had just gone crashing through it.

"There!" I pointed. "That must have been the way she went."

He looked down in that direction for a moment and then the both of us took off doing our best to make it down the hill despite the slick conditions. Halfway down we noticed that what ever had made this trail must have slipped and rolled the rest of the way down, due to the fact that a great deal more of the plants were disturbed. So we continued in that direction and as if to confirm that this was indeed the way the girl had come both of us heard someone moan.

There she was, lying at the bottom of the incline now slightly wet and with a few of the plants sticking to her clothes. The hair that had once according to Optimus been very long and one of her many great beauties had been removed, as Megatron had claimed and now what remained was plastered to her head and face. She didn't seem that she was going to be moving from that spot, in fact she looked like she was pressing her face into her arms doing her level best to quell the flood of emotions the appearance of her "Dead" mate had stirred up in her.

Prime backtracked slightly so that he would not come down right next to her and, then carefully made his way to where she was at the end of the incline. Once again however, she somehow knew he was coming because the moment he was within a two meter radius of her she lifted her face and looked at him once again with a look of utter horror. I watched as she managed to get to her feet and stood there with her weapon aimed at Prime.

"Angel," He held out his hands, "I didn't come here to hurt you. No one sent me to torment you. I'm real, can't you remember?"

"Remember!" She snarled, "I remember everything! I remember that Megatron has no shame, and that Glavatron is no better!"

She snapped the arm that was holding the firearm down and proceeded to spin away from Optimus and take off running. Now I made it down to where He was standing and I could see that this had actually once been a road or a path of some kind. It was little more than a pair of indentations with a small bit of gravel in them now. The girl however believed that it would lead her somewhere that she could hide from her Visions.

"Does this lead some where?" I asked.

He nodded to me, "It leads to the barn that she has on the property. She had let all of us set up a remote command center there."

"And so she runs there thinking that there will be something there to protect her or a way to contact the others that still "live"?"

"Yes." He shook his head, "I think she's going to be in for an even bigger shock than she was before."

"How so," I had to ask.

"If the communications test we did was correct, there's nothing left of the remote center." He started following in the direction she had gone, "Which means that there's probably nothing left of the barn itself."

As if to confirm our suspicions we heard a loud wail that could only have come from the wayward girl, and so we set off in the direction that she had gone. Once again we found her, this time she was on her knees with her face pressed into both hands and once again was over come by what ever it was she was feeling. The barn that had housed the command center was just as Prime predicted. Nothing more than a pile of rubble that was still smoking slightly as if it had recently just finished burning, or as if it had been a last minute thought on someone's part to destroy the thing. It had assured that there was no way of her contacting anyone else in, effectively stranding this woman in the middle of nowhere until she had come to terms with her visions or someone had come to rescue her.

Once again Prime tried to approach her and somehow she still knew that he was coming.

"Please," she begged from behind her hands, "Please just go away!"

"Angel I can't!" he told her, "I refuse to leave you, for anything!"

She raised her wet face and looked at him eyes full of accusation, "You were willing to leave me here and go back and fight! You were willing to stick me in that stupid city and assume I'd be safe!" She shuddered and sucked in a rather ragged breath and kept going, "And you were willing to DIE to keep Megatron from hurting anyone else."

"I would NEVER leave you alone," Prime pleaded, "I know you'd hand me my skid-plate in a sack if I did that!"

Now I was beginning to get some inkling of what the programming had done to Prime's human mate. It had basically brought all of her greatest fears to life. Abandonment by the man she loved, his death, everything she had dreaded happening in her life had been made real to her.

"And worst of all," Angel flung at him again, "You were willing to die to so that kid could take your place!"

"What kid? NO one is going to take my place Angel," he tried to assure her, "We don't even know who the next Prime is."

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" She screamed, "I don't blame Rodimus for what happened. But why, why did that monster have to use a child for a shield, an innocent CHILD!"

"Rodimus?" Prime looked at her in shock now. That name stirring up of his old memories.

Then yet again the human woman, who had just dropped a bomb of her own, vanished into the gloom of the rain and left the two of us staring after her. He suddenly managed to regain his composure and turned to me.

"Go back to the house Alpha." He ordered.

"Prime…Optimus, I don't think it's a good idea for you to be out here alone." I countered. "What if she starts firing on you again?"

"Then she'll just have to." He shot back. "I don't expect you to understand this Alpha Trion, but I have to do this on my own."

I lowered my optics for a moment and then looked back at him, "As you wish Optimus. I still do not think this is a wise decision though."

"Its not about wisdom Alpha," He corrected me with a greater amount of conviction than I had seen in him in a long time, "Its about love, and we both know that love never really makes sense."

"That's very true." I had to agree. "Very well then, I believe now that you have to do this on your own, therefore I will be of better use back at the house."

"Thank you."

I watched him stalk off into the rain, this time I could see that he knew talking would never do any good. Trying to reason his way through the images that had been forced into this mates mind would never work. Now he was on the hunt and wouldn't return until he had done what he had come to this place to do to begin with. As much as I thought it was a bad idea I headed back to the house and proceeded to check on those that had been left there in the aftermath of the first meeting. Jazz was in the process of helping Ratchet look after Ironhide in the dining hall of the house. Prowl however was no where to be found in this part of the house. So I walked deeper into the thing and finally found him in the room where we had located the girl when we had first arrived. He was knelt down on the floor in the process of collecting some things that must have been scattered there by her.

He looked up at me as I walked in, "these belong to Miss Angel, and I want them to be okay for her when she's …alright."

I nodded and proceeded to get down and help him start collecting them. That was when we noticed something else on the floor. I had no description for what the substance could be but it looked like it had been dropped there after the cards had been scattered. Prowl stared at the strange red brown splotch and appeared to become more and more distressed as he looked at it.

"Prowl," I questioned, "What is that?"

"Its blood," He touched the spot with his hand, "the human equivalent of mech fluid, processed energon."

"I see," I stared hard at it. "Was the young lady hurt in the fight?"

Prowl shook his head at me, "No, this looks like it has been here for a while, it's dried."

He got up and proceeded to look around to see if there were any more of the strange stains any where around the house. It took more than a few moments of searching but he did find one more small stain. It turned out to be in the human woman's fresher station. On the floor next to the water tank, just there where it could possibly have little or great meaning.

"Something's just not right here." Prowl told me. "I don't know much about human forensics but this just seems off."

"Perhaps the girl was hurt somehow in being transferred here?" I said, trying to provide some answer.

"I hope that's all it was," He shook his head; "It just doesn't fit somehow."

"The answers will be forthcoming when Miss Angel recovers hopefully." I offered

Prowl opened his mouth to say more, that was when all of us there in that house heard a cry that put all of the others we had heard so far to complete and utter shame. I was guessing it was at that instant that Prime must have located his human mate and done what had to be done to save the woman.

I was correct in this assumption. While I had gone back to the house and had been making the rather ominous discovery with Prowl, Prime had followed the girl into the woods and tracked her until he saw her strength finally give out again and she collapsed on the ground in a small clearing on her land. During the chase several times the girl had stopped and fired at him. Whoever had altered the young woman's mind had done so in a way that she would fight no matter how close it came to killing her. Indeed by the time the last of the rounds were expended the girl had nearly run her self into oblivion. Now all she could do was sit there and try to get some of her wind back.

Prime was standing a good 20 meters from her just watching. He had noticed that this path, the one that had led her to this clearing had been used at lot and this must have been one of her favorite places on the farm. The fact that she had never gotten to show him this place pierced his heart to the very core. Now whenever she came to her clearing or tried to show it to him, his memory would be tainted by this horrid instance and he would never be able to love it the way she would want him to. So for the moment he just stood there watching her.

He stood there and watched her until he came to the moment where he had to make the choice. She looked down at the gun in her hand and proceeded to eject the clip and found it empty. She slid the clip back into the gun and cast it away from her as if she were flinging a viper from her grasp.

"Please God, someone …" She begged, "Just let me have some peace."

Optimus closed his optics for a moment and clicked the safety off his own weapon. He raised it and drew it up on her, the motion catching her attention as he did so. She stared at him for a moment, and in that second in her eyes she was begging him to do it. She could live without him, she could find away to go on. However, if she were forced to face his image and had to confront him again and again, knowing that she could never ever have him back, that she was seeing him but was forever alone, that would destroy her.

"Forgive me," He told her.

A moment later it was done and the girl was lying in the clearing at his feet, the monstrosity that was controlling her mind finally, finally shut down. A look of peace on her face so deep that once again it slashed Prime's emotions open and left him as raw and wounded as the girl herself had been.

The ion rifle that had done its work dropped to the ground from his suddenly nerveless fingers and he dropped down on to his own knees next to the girl and tried to get his own feelings under control. He sat there for a moment so consumed by anger at what he had done, and for the one that had made him commit this act that he literally began to shake.

He suddenly threw his head back in the rain and cried out at the top of his vocal circuits.

"_**MEGATRON!"**_

All of us heard this; this was the cry that had put all the others that had been uttered during our time on the farm. The one that had rendered Prowl silent in his speculations about the blood marks, and the one that left all of the rest of us wondering just what was going to become of the leader of the Autobots as well as his human mate.

There were those of us, after we heard, that expected to never see either Optimus or Angel come out of the woods again. So I am forced to admit there was a great deal of relief I felt when I saw him appear on the tree line and begin the walk back to the house were all of us were waiting. I was unsure from where we were standing, but it seemed to me that he was in fact carrying something in his arms. All of us, even Ironhide stood and stared as he finally made it to the house and it was revealed that the thing he was holding was indeed the girl.

"Oh Primus," Ironhide managed when he finally got a good look at them.

"Are we ready to pull out?" Prime asked.

Every single one of us nodded and we all began to make the preparations to move out and get back to the Ark as fast as humanly possible. The information to remove the implant was there in Ratchet's lab waiting for all of us and all we had to do now was to get the woman back to where we could help her.

While the others checked the last bit of preparations, I moved over to where Prime was standing with the woman in his arms.

"You did the right thing," I told him.

"Did I?" He shot back. "She was begging me to kill her Alpha, maybe coming here was a mistake."

"You don't really believe that and you know it," I shook my head, "This was done to make you and her both doubt the validity of your love for each other, to bring both her and your worst fears to life."

"It worked."

"Indeed," I nodded, "So now you have to prove that you're strong enough to prevail. I for one believe that you and her both are."

He stopped looking off into the distance and looked at me, "Thank you for having faith in me."

"In both of you Prime," I nodded to the woman in his arms, "I have met the young woman, I know she loves you, and I know you will endure."

I went to finish helping the others, I was hoping that this would be the end of all of this and it would be over once the woman was safe. I did not, could not know that this was just the beginning.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Notes: I would like to extend profound thanks to my good friend Dexter (The Collector) for helping me get this chapter done! I would never have made it all the way through without you! Thank you so much!

RP1

If That's What It Takes

Part 5

It was a simple matter to head from the back roads that led us to the girl, to the main highway. That however is where the simplicity ended. We all knew that something would happen; all knew that the possibility of the Decepticons attacking was looming in the air as oppressively as the rain clouds we were leaving behind. Still I don't think any of us were prepared for what happened the moment our tires touched the pavement of I-75.

To the micro second almost the proximity alarms started going off and once we all checked the monitors every single one of us ground to a halt and checked the readings again in utter and complete shock.

"We got Decepticons at 12 o'clock!" Jazz shouted back to Prime.

"How many," He asked.

"Ummm…" Jazz paused for a second, "All of them I think!"

"Say what?" Ironhide asked.

"ALL of them!" Jazz repeated.

It became more than apparent to us the moment that Megatron landed in front of us and glared at us.

"SO," He crossed his arms and looked at Prime as all of us transformed. "I see you have managed to locate what remains of your human mate."

"Don't even start Megatron," Ironhide proceeded to interpose himself between Prime, who was now holding Angel in one hand, and Megatron. "I still owe you fer that stunt at Yellowstone."

"As I owe you for sticking your nose where it doesn't belong." The silver mech shot back. "Now as I see it Prime, your human is in need of care from your medic, surrender to me and I promise that I will let her receive the treatment that she needs. Continue to defy me, and I will run you both into the ground."

Now it was Jazz's turn to step up and take his leader and the girl's part. "Over MY DISASSEMBLED SCRAP PILE!"

"That makes three of us!" Prowl added.

He then proceeded to turn to myself, Ratchet, and Prime, "You three get going and get that girl out of here. Get her back to the Ark as soon as possible."

Optimus opened his mouth to protest when Prowl proceeded to do something that I would have never thought him capable of doing.

"As of right now sir I relieve you of command," He motioned to the girl, "Get her and get your skid plate on the road. That's an ORDER!"

Prowl then proceeded to turn to Megatron and glare at him, flipping open his com-unit in the process. "You want to cause trouble Megatron? You got it!" He grinned evilly and snapped the com on, "This is an all point mobilization of ALL Autobot forces. Repeat this is an all-out mobilization of all forces, immediate rendezvous on these coordinates."

"SO BE IT!" the leader of the Decepticons yelled, "DECEPTICONS attack!"

From out of nowhere and everywhere, secret tunnels and hiding areas that had been scoped out by the scanners, but unseen to the eye, and had been created by the Constructicons during the time while the girls had been held prisoner. From out of all of these places every single Decepticon came flooding. Seekers, Coneheads, Stunticons, Combaticons, cassettes, and everything else popped out of nowhere and began an all-out assault on the Autobots.

Thankfully for all of us who were suddenly caught in the middle of this mess, Prowl and all of those that Prime had long ago gathered around him as his upper escalons had taken precautions of their own. Just when every single one of us would most likely have been plastered all over the highway the Protectobots came plowing our direction and pulled up to the rescue.

Everyone had been anticipating some kind of trap, some reason that the girls had been taken in the first place. The reason that Megatron would go to all of this trouble, more than just simple revenge, to get Prime and his mate out in the open. To get them out where they could be defeated and destroyed. However the Decepticon lord had underestimated the response that the rest of the Autobots would have to a maneuver of this type.

"Defensor Assemble," and a few moments later the gestalt was standing there and had engaged his shield generator. I watched as he turned and looked down at myself, Ratchet, and Prime. "Optimus, GET OUT OF HERE! Alpha Trion, Ratchet, go with him. You have to get Angel back to the Ark, ASAP!"

Typical to form Prime was more worried about those under his command and made a point of trying to put those he cared about before him.

"What about you! I have no intention of leaving you here to die!"

Defensor looked down at his commander and glared, "I THOUGHT Prowl removed you from command. Angel is the one that matters the most here, you have to get her to safety. Now get your skid plate out of here before I KICK you out!"

It was safe to say at that point the commander of the Autobots knew better than to argue with someone who was four times his size and for that matter had a point. So he did the only thing that he could do at that point. Handed Angel to me and proceeded to transform. A few moments later the girl was strapped into his driver's seat and all of us were pulling out heading back to the ark. Defensor took up a position and unfortunately managed to get himself caught between both Devestator and Bruticus. They had a time tossing him around like something from a human's game of pinball for a few more moments and then they proceeded to loose interest in him and set their sights on our fleeing party once more.

Bruticus pulled out his two massive multiple barreled hand guns and put a bead on us as the three of us tore out of the area in a cloud of dust and smoke. However the military gestalt either had not heard or didn't care about the mobilization order because a moment later a hail storm of weapons fire rained down on him and his companion, Devastator like some vision from the human's hell. Moments earlier in a hanger some ways down the road the seven jets that were in the employee of the Autobots had taken off and made a point of heading in this direction with as much gusto as they could manage. While Megatron had more than enough time to prepare his troops to take down the Autobot forces, he had forgotten that we were a group of people that, unlike his soldiers, had not been bred for battle. Therefore in order to make as much headway as we possibly could, we had become masters of improvisation. So, as a result, we may not have been better fighters but we had become better and getting our point across when we needed to be, and much better at using what time we did have to make ready.

Defensor pulled himself back up into a standing position and got ready to take action while they were both distracted. He had been watching too much NFL and WWE and pulled a move that he had learned from both places. Ten miles away the impact was heard from his "Spear Tackle" and Devastator found himself shoulder-deep in a hole that he was going to have a great deal of difficulty getting out of.

By this point the Aerialbots had taken on their own combined form and grinned down at their comrade as he pulled this move.

"YOU ROCK Defy!" He crowed as he drew his sights up on Bruticus. "NOW it's my turn!"

Meanwhile the aforementioned monster of a Decepticon was dragging himself out of his state of shock from the fire fight and was looking for something to start pummeling.

"BURITCUS ANGRY!" he roared at the top of his audios.

"OH, GO SUCK A DRIVE SHAFT!" Superion yelled back.

The Decepticon looked for the source of the insult, only to locate it just in time to see the white combiner blasting out of the clouds at him going at top speed.

Somewhere in Winchester someone heard the sound and wondered what was going on. What had happened was that, not only had the mindless brute been blasted into his components but each and every one of them was going to be keeping Hook company in his infirmary for an extended period of time.

While all of that was going on, four of the Stunticon group were in the process of going about making the lives of those who were giving us ground support an utter living hell.

"ENGAGE RAMMING SHIELDS!" Wildrider called to all of his comrades.

A few moments later nearly everyone that had joined us on the road turned out to be at the mercy of these four maniacs. Every single one of those who were running interference for us wound up shoved off the road and with more dents in them than I had ever thought any Autobot was capable of dealing with.

Somehow Ratchet was managing to keep up with Prime and doing a good job of staying out of the ways of the blows. This could be due to the fact that none of the Stunticons were after him. Time and again they hammered Optimus with their ramming shields and time and again I could see more and more of the red armor that protected him chipped, cracked or throttled inward, and his trailer was completely lost. Sooner or later it was going to come to the point that he was going to loose it and he needed help here and needed it soon. Here I made a point of hanging back and caught up with the twins just as they were hauling them selves up back on to the road from where they had been knocked. The gold twin was opening his mouth to complain about the condition of his paint while the other one was in the process of telling him to shut up and radioing the Aerialbots.

"Silv'?" I heard Sideswipe ask into his com as I pulled up.

"This is Silverbolt, I copy." He called back, "We just wiped the north half of I-75 with Bruticus and Devestator, anything we can help you with down there?"

"Wow, you two took out the twin terrors? Man, remind me I owe you a can of oil when we get back to the Ark. Right now though, we need you to get yer flying skid plates over here and give Prime some air support. The Stunticons have pretty much chased everyone else off the road and he's going to need some help pronto!"

"We'll be there as fast as we can," Silverbolt told him.

"Just watch your backs," Sunstreaker added finally getting him self under control, "Those nut-balls have the Seekers with them."

"Perfect," Was all that the SST had to say in response.

While they were flying in to the rescue and I was heading out with the twins, Wildrider was in the process of getting ready to finish Optimus off. He gave him one more good bash and then lined up his sights.

"HEY GUYS!" He gloated, "One more good bash and his tandem axles are history! Get ready to take him out!"

He never got a chance to live up to that boast due to the fact that a moment later a barrage of shells tore through his roof and rear end, as well as leaving a huge hole in his engine block. The sports car was suddenly left on the side of the road and Optimus continued to roar away with his precious cargo still strapped in and somehow unharmed. The last moment save had come from the A-10 warthog that had come swooping out of the sky at the last moment. Powerglide grinned to himself and proceeded to inform his victim what he thought of him.

"TAKE THAT Decepticreep!" He yelled, "That's what you get for messing with da main 'Bot!"

A few seconds later the mini-bot had swooped around yet again and all three of the other Stunticons had gotten the same treatment that had just been delivered to the black Ferrari. This prompted Starscream to decide that the tough little plane needed to be taken care of. After issuing order for the rest of the jets to stay on the tail of the Autobot leader, he turned and began to do his best to knock the Warthog out of the sky.

Skywarp snickered and had to look back, "Think Screams can stand up to old 'Glide?"

"Who knows?" Thundercracker shot back, "Its going to be a blast to watch though."

The red and blue seeker did the best he could to loose the little plane, using every trick in the book and then some to try and get him off of his tail. All of it was to no avail however, Powergilde stuck to the irate jet like he was made of epoxy and a few seconds later Starscream was at his wits end.

"That all you got Screamy?" The smaller plane called.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Starscream roared.

"FINE!" Powerglide told him as he powered up his weapons array, "I'll just call you Swiss cheese!"

Five minutes later Powerglide was out of ammo and Starscream had several Autobot symbols carved into his wings, his back and cockpit.

"YOU Miserable little ….I'll GET you for this!" the Seeker yelled as he fell from the sky and made a good impression on some part of the highway of his own.

"Promises, promises," Powerglide muttered, "Hey Jet? How about a pick up big buddy? I'm running on fumes here."

"Can do, lil guy!" Jetfire told him. "Stay put till I come for you."

While all of this was taking place the rest of the Autobot fliers had their hands full with the other Seekers, the Conehead jets and the Cassette fliers. Needless to say it was less than pretty but it got done what it needed to and Prime and Ratchet managed to get themselves into the clear. Or so the two of them believed, twenty more miles down the road the leader of the Stunticons was waiting his engine gunning, and looking to knock Prime off his perch once and for all.

"Time to finish this, old man," He called over open frequencies, "I'm going to hit you and that broad so hard that they are going to need tweezers to pick up the bits of you!"

Here yet again the Decpticons made the mistake of underestimating what the Autobots would do for someone that they cared about. Rather than cut his motor down, Prime himself gunned his own motor and took off down the road at break-neck speed. By now the rest of us who were members of the Autobots got wind of what he was going to do and began to make some of the loudest protest that we thought possible.

"DON'T DO IT PRIME!" Prowl cried.

"You're in no condition!" Ratchet tried

"Think about Miss Angel!" Someone else hollered to him.

"Don't Do it Optimus!" Silverbolt told him, "I'm detecting his ramming shields intact! He's got more mass than you do since you lost your trailer! NEITHER OF YOU will survive the hit!"

"Your just going to have to have faith in me Silverbolt." Was Prime's reply.

"Faith? What do you mean?"

"Faith that I can pull off something that only a Prime could," came the stoic reply.

As if by some sick twist of fate, it was that the two massive Cybertronians were going to clash at a bridge right smack in the middle of the highway. At this point all I can say is that the Matrix, the thing that makes a Prime what he is, felt that the one it was now a part of was in dire straights. That its current bearer would do anything on this or any other world to save the woman that he loved. It knew that he needed its power more than ever before; it could hear him almost begging it for help. It answered. He felt the power come to him, the pure undiluted essence of Primus himself. It was as if the Deity of the Transformers saw what was going on between his chosen Prime and this human woman. He saw and he approved, therefore when Optimus Prime called out to it for strength it granted it to him. Power like none he had ever known hit him with the force of a tidal wave, and somehow he knew that he would win and Motormaster would be the one that would wind up totaled from this fight. Up until Motormaster saw the other big rig come over the hill he was sure that he would win, and then he got a good look at him, and wished that he had never thought to pull such a stupid stunt.

The shockwave could be felt miles away. Prime plowed right through him and appeared to barely even notice what he had just done. As for Motormaster, he was reamed off the bridge and sent flying down into the river below, landing up-side-down and compacting under his own mass as the water closed over him.

Prime continued to barrel away from the scene of this but was not out of the battle by a long shot. The rest of the Decepticons were following them and that last stunt with the Matrix had pretty much cost him almost all of his reserves. The fact of the matter is right then if Superion had not come after him and retrieved the leader, he would most likely have been caught.

Prime somehow, with much grinding of gears and more than a little bit of cursing managed to transform back and hung on to the gestalt as best he could. This prompted all of those Decepticons that were airborne to start strafing the big combiner and doing the best they could to knock him and his passenger from the sky.

It probably would have been accomplished, if not for some rather desperate action on the part of the gestalt in question. The Aerialbots split apart and that left Prime holding on to Silverbolt. The SST proceeded to floor it heading back to the Ark while everyone else remained to engage those who were still trying to harrier them back into the ground.

Somehow all of us managed to reach the safety of the Ark and Prime handed the girl he had done so much to protect over to Ratchet. Strangely enough it was then that all of us realize that Optimus himself was barely on his feet and it took several of us to haul the CO into the med center for treatment himself.

The Decepticons for their part had begun to mass outside of the Ark and for all appearances it seemed that there would be another battle. They were not however, counting on the last line of defense for the Autobots. Omega was officially one of them and the all points' mobilization had reached him too. So when they began to amass, he appeared and shot down the confidence of every enemy present.

"Omega Supreme, Ready for BATTLE!" he informed his comrades as they all turned to look at the retreating Decepticons with looks of sheer glee plastered on their faces.

Inside the Ark's med bay I was in the process of taking stock of and preparing to treat Prime's injuries. Ratchet however, had changed back to his human size and had shut himself in the operating theater going to immediate work on saving the mind of Angel.

As I tended to the wounded leader all I could think to myself was that I hoped that was all it was going to take to save her, because I had a feeling that there was going to be a great deal more to it than just what met our optic sensors.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Notes: Thanks again to Dexter(The collector) for his tech support and for lots and lots of idears. Hope you like the latest chapter!

RP1

If That's What It Takes: Part 6

Prime had, quite unwillingly, finally succumbed to the injuries he had sustained in while doing every thing in his power to get his human mate back to the Ark and into the hands of the medic that could save her mind. He had succeeded here and the woman had been handed off. Prime himself lay unconscious his own mind doing its best to find the woman that he loved.

He stared into the darkness around him; he could hear his Angel crying for him somewhere. He could hear the girl but couldn't find her no matter how he tried. So he did the only thing that he knew to do. He began to follow the sound deeper into whatever world that he seemed stuck in. The further he followed the sound of her, the louder it became. It was indeed like he was getting closer to some place that the girl's soul had flung itself when she had looked into his eyes on the farm and begged him to take her life.

He had not of course, but he had done what was needed to put her in the hands of the people that could help her. It was not done without regrets, and it had caused him more anguish than anyone would have thought. It was probably that more than anything else that had pulled him down into this place where he was almost as lost as the girl herself.

He had no concept of where he was going or really what he was going to do only that he had to reach the source of the sounds that he was hearing. So it was that he took a few more steps deeper into the darkness and found that he had moved into something completely different. The place seemed to be lighter, as if he were no longer lost but had began to find in some strange way, what he was looking for.

It was just a place really, something that looked in some strange way familiar. Prime wracked his processor trying to remember where he had seen this place before. It was so like somewhere he had been, but it was essentially completely and utterly dead. He could see the place withering literally right before his optics. Fading away more and more the as the moments ticked by. He could hear the sound of his lifemate's tears quite clearly now and he was about to head off in the direction to find her when something caught his attention. It caught his attention and held him fast there. It was THE house, the one from the farm that he had just rescued Angel from. Like everything else around him it seemed to be decaying, falling apart the more and more he looked at it. Prime stepped closer and walked around the side of the house and found yet another surprise.

What it looked like was a huge plant of some kind that had grown and almost looked like a part of the house. Like the land, and the house, and everything else around him it was falling into nothing but dust. He took a closer look and discovered that the thing he was looking at was in fact a huge rose plant. The remains of what looked like Angel's favorite type of flowers clung to the thing in more than a few places and even more seemed too be scattered on the ground. He took a closer look and found what looked like one blossom still intact

"Oh Primus," He shook his head, "What's happening here? What is this place?"

Prime took a closer look and found that in fact there were three of the flowers remaining. One was still tightly closed and the other two still looked like they might last. He reached out his hand to touch one of them just to see if this were real or still some kind of strange dream. The moment he touched the bloom however his relief at finding something alive in this strange dream of his Angel's home turned to complete horror. Somewhere in the vision the sound of the tears he had been hearing turned to a scream and the flower he had been admiring shattered into a million fragments.

The horror suddenly burst and Prime found himself looking up at the ceiling of the medbay in the Ark. For the most part everything around him seemed natural as it could be in a place like this. However he still got the feeling, from the dream he had left behind that the woman he loved was still in grave danger.

Prime levered him self into a sitting position and could literally still feel that he was far from recovered from the attacks, not to mention the stunt with the Matrix. Somehow though he got on to his feet and proceeded to make for the exit intent on finding out just how long he had been unconscious and what had happened to Angel in the mean time.

"Where do you think you are going?" I asked.

He looked up at me and realized that I must have been in the room the entire time.

"Do I really have to tell you Alpha?"

I shook my head, "No. I know exactly where you are going. Thankfully you don't have far to go, she's in the main room."

He must have seen that I was holding something back from him because he instantly demanded to know what I wasn't finishing.

"What aren't you telling me?"

I sighed, "Ratchet can explain it better to you than I can Optimus." I touched the panel on the door, "If you would like to see her though while you wait for him, she's here."

I moved out of his way and headed off deeper into the medbay to find the wayward Ratchet. For his part, Prime moved out and immediately caught sight of what he was looking for.

His Angel lay there, looking like she was doing nothing more than sleeping. However he could see from the lines on her face that she had been through a great ordeal. So for the time being all he did was go over to her and wait until the medic appeared to tell him what had happened.

"What the Pit are you doing up?" Ratchet snarled as I led him over to Prime, "Do you have any idea how much was wrong with you? You're nowhere near…"

That was when Ratchet caught the look in his leader's optics. It was clear that he didn't really care much for his own condition; all he wanted to know at that point was what had happened to his lifemate. What had happened to her, and was she going to recover from it.

"I see you found her," Ratchet told him softly.

"Go on," Prime prompted him.

"We were able to remove the implant with very little trouble," Ratchet looked down at the girl, "However it did not solve the problem the way we might have hoped."

"And what does that mean," Optimus asked.

"When we removed the device, she should have woken up." The medic shook his head, "She didn't. Instead it seems like she slipped into some kind of coma. I ran a scan on her and it looks like some part of her long term memory was damaged by the implant. She may or may not remember everything that happened to her when she wakes up."

He paused and looked at the monitors around the girl and then continued.

"That though, is the problem," He pointed to readout, "She's not waking up."

"Why not?" Prime yet again prodded his medic to continue.

"It seems like whatever programming there was there in the chip, went deeper than that. Something in her mind was triggered somehow, and now she's trying to fight off whatever it is that's trying to take over her mind."

"And what does that mean in plain basic."

"It means that she literally was brainwashed," Ratchet told him, "And now the part of her that was controlled had developed into its own AI. Simply put, she's in there, trapped in her own mind fighting herself." Ratchet looked down at the girl, "And it's slowly but surely tearing her apart."

"So how do we stop it?" Optimus once again demanded.

"I don't think there is a way to stop it," I chimed in, "The young lady's survival depends now on her strength and belief in her self."

"There has to be something that can be done to help her." Optimus said as he tried to get up.

Unfortunately, Ratchet had been correct in his diagnosis of Prime's condition as well. Thusly, the leader managed to get about three steps into the medbay when the world twisted out from under him and he proceeded to collapse.

"There isn't anything that anyone can do Optimus." Ratchet told him gently. "There's no way to get inside of her mind and help her."

Optimus leaned against him and shook his head, "Maybe not for you."

"Now slaggit!" The doctor growled, "Don't you dare go off and try something stupid you hear me? You're nowhere near in any shape to do much of anything except what I tell you to do."

Ratchet proceeded to tug Prime, along with my own help, back in the direction of the room where he had been starting out with.

"And here's what I'm telling you to do," Ratchet continued, "You get in here and you stay put until your systems are recovered. Go out there and try and do something else like what you pulled on the trip back here and there may not be anything left for the woman to wake up to."

Prime sat down on his repair birth and put his head in his hands, for all the world looking like he had lost everything. Despite all of his crass attitude and mean streaks, even this could not but help to cause Ratchet to soften.

He reached out and put his hand on his leader and friend's shoulder, "Listen to me okay? Angel is strong, and as stubborn as you. Don't give up on her, she will find some way to beat it, if only so she can come back to you."

"Thank you Ratchet," Optimus said softly.

"Your welcome," The white mech nodded back, "Now try to get some more rest, before I come magnetize your skidplate to the repair birth."

Prime had to smile over that one. Somehow it stayed in place until Ratchet had left and then I could see the leader almost literally deflate in front of me.

"She is strong Optimus," I put my own hand on his shoulder, "You have to believe that."

"You don't know what I saw in my dreams, Alpha Trion." He told me, "She's dying. She's slipping further and further into the darkness around her and there's nothing I can do to help her."

"There may be nothing you can do from here Optimus," I looked at him, "But maybe here isn't where she needs you to be. She seems to need more help from with in than she does from out here." I turned from him and moved to head out the door, "I suggest you take Ratchet's advice, it may be just what both of you need right now."

He stared at me for a few moments as what I said to him seemed to filter through his mind and then he nodded. I left the room to confer with Ratchet for a few moments and upon returning found Prime yet again seemingly having given in to his condition. I nodded my head and shut the door behind me.

Prime once again found himself in the place from his dreams, this time however he was not confused or lost, this time he knew exactly what to do and where to go. He once more followed the sound and once more found himself standing on what looked like a decayed version of the farm that meant so very much to his chosen life mate.

As before he noticed that it was coming apart right before his eyes, only now it seemed that there was almost nothing left of anything. The house was nearly gone, and the land around it had become little more than a lifeless waste. He took two steps closer to what remained of the house and once more found the rose bush. This time he noticed that the two from before still remained, the one tightly close and the other that seemed on the verge of falling apart. Optimus did not take the time to stare at them as before, he only had one thought and that was to go deeper into this miasma and find out wherever Angel's soul was hiding.

He did not have to search very long. Like in the real world there was a steep rise to one side and to the back of the house. It was a good long walk and when you made it to the top, the cliff broke off into nothing more than a drop straight down into the valley. That was where he found her, Angel. Standing on the drop and looking down into it, on the very verge of choosing whether or not she still had the will to live.

"ANGEL!"

Despite the fact that he screamed the girl's name, it had no effect and she continued to stand there and stare into the darkness below her.

"She can't hear you." A voice called from behind him.

Prime turned and stared in shock as some thing that he would have never ever imagined materialized out of the dream world. For all intents and purposes it looked like his first lost love, Elita-1. She smiled at him unpleasantly and walked closer to him.

"You like?" She grinned. "Oh I'm not really your precious Elita."

"Then what… who are you?" He demanded.

"The programming of course," She grinned more, "The good Doctor wanted to make it as unpleasant as possible for your little human lover. So he gave me a form that he knew would through her for a loop."

The construct turned away from him and looked at where Angel was still perched.

"She really thinks your dead you know?" She shook her head, "It's so very pathetic really. She's up there, ready to fling her self into oblivion just to be with you."

"What makes you think I'm going to stand here and let that happen you… Thing." Prime growled.

"Oh you're free to try and go stop her if you want," The construct turned and looked back at him, "But you sure that's what you want? Just think about it. If she flings herself down there, her mind will be a blank slate. You could make her anything you wanted?" The construct motioned to the form it had taken, "Even me."

"Get out of my way!" Prime grabbed the construct and shoved it out of the way, proceeding to take off, up the hill at as fast of a run as he could possibly manage.

When he reached her, he could see that she was standing there with her eyes shut. She was trying to work up the courage to do it, muster the wherewithal to come to him wherever he was.

"ANGEL!" He screamed her name a second time, "DON'T!"

This time it seemed to reach her. She turned and looked at him once more, just as she had done back in the waking world. She began to deny it.

"No, Oh please no." She shook her head, "Please don't."

Prime at this point didn't care about anything but getting through to her. He could see that in her mind, she was just as she had been the morning she vanished. Her long hair was still in place and she was even wearing the Jeans and T-shirt she had been that morning.

"Don't tell me to stop Angel," He told her, "I am going to do whatever it takes to make you see through this… this nightmare."

She took a step backwards, inching closer to the edge. "I saw you die."

"But did you FEEL it?" He told her, "Angel I KNOW the connection between us is still here. I felt it. Felt you calling out to me even though you thought I was dead."

"Feel it?" She blinked, "I … I didn't think…" She put her hands on her head, "NO! No it's not real! All of this, everything here is just an illusion!"

Angel proceeded to drop down to her knees, her mind still reeling from what she was being told. Optimus bent down and gently lifted her face up out of her hands, holding it in both of his own.

"I know it hurts, I know your confused." He looked at her, "But you have to try. I know you can still stop this."

"It's too hard," She wailed at him pulling away, "Everyone told me how wonderful I was, what I blessing I was. That our love was something that would last." She shut her eyes and tears began to streak her face. "I can't take being cut off from you."

"Then DON'T BE," Prime pleaded, "I'm here, I'm real and alive, and I'm waiting for you to come back to me."

Trapped inbetween worlds, stuck in her own mind Angel looked from the darkness below and then back to the man that she had given her heart to. She closed her eyes for a second and then, she made her choice.

"Oh, ORION!" She cried.

Prime had his own optics shut off; for fear that the girl might choose the other path and walk right into death's embrace. To say that he was shocked when he felt her put her arms around him and hold on would be to understate the point by a million fold. All of his own pain seemed worth it at that point, worth everything that had happened just to be holding this girl in his arms again. The connection that had been cut off from the two of them, the thing that proved they were indeed bound beyond this life and the next went from the small spark he had been carrying into a raging inferno in less time than it took to lift his face from where he had been embracing her.

The girl he had done all of this to save looked up at him and opened her mouth to say something. The look of joy she had been wearing suddenly became one of complete and utter horror as she saw something behind him. Optimus Prime suddenly felt a sharp pain and for a few seconds lost the concentration it was taking to keep his mind focused in this world. He heard Angel scream as he hit the ground trying his best to regain his composure.

"Oh don't be such a baby." he heard the construct from before say. "He'll live just long enough to see me take you out."

Angel slowly stood up from where she had collapsed next to him and stared down the construct.

"I have had enough of you!" Angel growled, "One way or another you bitch, this is going to end now!"

"You think you have the power to defeat me?" The construct scoffed, "You don't even know half of the power that you have, all that glorious PSI given to a girl who doesn't even know how to use it, what a waste."

"I don't care what you say," The real girl growled back, "You aren't part of me, you don't belong here."

Angel looked down at her own hand, wishing that she had one of her guns with her, only to see the thing materialize from no where.

"How…"The construct glared, "that's not possible!"

Angel closed her eyes for a moment and smiled.

"I get it now," She continued to leer at the construct, "This is MY mind, MY world. Anything and everything I want is possible here, isn't it?"

"You still cant beat me." the fake creature taunted.

"Oh really?" Angel narrowed her eyes, "Then why are you shaking?"

By now Optimus had regained enough of his concentration to see what was happening. What was happening was that Angel was in the process of doing her level best to chase this monster out of her mind. It didn't matter what form, or shape the construct now took on, it was plain that the girl was not going to be fooled. The construct however had one last trick up its sleeve. It blindsided the girl and then leapt in the direction where Prime himself was still standing. By the time Angel had gained her bearings it was standing next to him and had taken on his form.

"SHOOT HIM!" It told her, "He's the construct!"

"Don't!" She snarled, "Don't you think I can tell you apart?"

"Angel." The real Optimus told her, "Angel I won't tell you to shoot him or me."

"He's trying to fool you," The construct told her, "Shoot him now."

"No Angel," Optimus told her, "No this is a choice you have to make. You have to choose to do what you think is right, It's YOUR choice and your's alone."

"My choice?" She looked at him and back at the fake Prime.

"NO SHOOT HIM NOW! There is no other choice." The counterfeit demanded.

"There's always a choice," Prime told her, "You have the freedom to choose, and it's your right as a thinking, sentient being."

Angel lowered her gun for a second and then shook her head, "Now I know which one of you is fake." She replied, "Only the REAL Orion would tell me to choose. Tell me that it's my choice to make by right of my freedom."

She turned her gun on the fake Prime, "You loose."

Optimus heard the shot and saw that there was a huge flash of light that followed. When his eyes finally cleared up he could see that it was over. Angel was now standing in front of the rose plant he had now seen twice. He realized for the first time that it must some how represent her, her soul. As she had withered away so had it, now she was standing before it and the lone blossom that had remained was slowly unfolding its self in all its glory.

"You did it," Prime told her.

He could see now that she had changed, in her appearance. She now had the short hair that she was sporting in the waking world and now was dressed in something that looked like one of her night gowns.

"Yes," She turned to smile at him, "I did."

She then turned and looked back at the plant. There were patches of it that had been destroyed for ever and some that would re-grow. Finally there was one place that looked as if a new budding had been torn away.

"It's not over yet," she shook her head, "There's still a lot I have to cope with, and something else."

"Something else?" Optimus looked at her questioningly.

"You will see soon." She touched the plant, "I can't articulate it here, I'm not sure I remember it all yet." She shook her head again. "I'm not even sure it matters."

He put his arms around her and held on tight, "Whatever it is, whatever happens, I swear I will be there to help you through it."

She smiled again, "I know." Then she grinned, "And now you need to get your skidplate back to reality. They need you there."

"Say what?" Prime blinked.

"Megatron is causing trouble," Yet another evil little grin, "Time for you to go and put him in his place again." She hugged him once more, "Don't worry, I'll catch up."

Optimus Prime opened his eyes and came back to a waking world filled with blaring alarms and flashing red lights. He promptly hauled himself off of the repair birth and tore out to the main bay where he could see from the picture on Teletran-1's screen that everything had broken loose. The Decepticons had tried another attack, knowing that he was in no condition to fight. Or so they thought.

Needless to say it came as a great shock to Megatron when someone came out of the bay of the Ark and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Looking for me?" Prime asked.

"What the," Was about all Megatron had a chance to get out before the royal blue fist connected with his faceplate and he went flying a good 500 meters.

"ALRIGHT!" Jazz crowed at the top of his vocals, "The BOSS is back!"

"You have ten seconds to get out of here Megatron," Optimus proceeded to produce his Ion cannon from subspace, "Or I start shooting."

Megatron pulled him self to his feet and wiped the energon off of his face, glaring daggers through Optimus the entire time.

"So be it Prime," Megatron backed up a few steps, "I see you must have managed to save your human mate."

"That is none of your business." Prime snarled.

"Whatever," Megatron shrugged, "So you saved the miserable flesh girl. That's all you can do." Megatron folded his arms and glared at Optimus one final time, "You may have saved your mate Prime. There are however other's I can strike. Let's see just how good you really are when the next life connected to you, when the life of your heir is on the line."

With that final comment, Megatron called a retreat of all his forces. The Decepticons knew that there was no real way for them to fight Prime, as well as a pack of freshly inspired Autobots, so they followed their leader's example and headed off into the empty sky to leave those behind to cheer their Victory.

Slowly it calmed down and the whole group realized that Prime himself was no longer among them. It did not take them long to locate him.

"Alright, ALRIGHT!" Ratchet yelled, "I want all of you OUT! Prime just pulled the stupidest stunt of his life, which considering all that's gone on the last few days is really saying something. Anyhow, both he AND Miss Angel are confined here until **_I_** give the all clear." He paused and smiled a moment. "Besides, s'not like they don't need some time alone."

That cleared everyone else out of the hallway and left Ratchet to take one more look in and make sure his charges were safe. One quick nod to my self later and we were both satisfied that it was finally on its way to being over, at least with Angel.

None of us who were there could have ever suspected just how wrong we really were.


	8. Chapter 8

If That's What it Takes: Part 7

Angel bolted upright in her bed and sat staring into the semi-darkness of the bedroom she and Prime had been sharing. The girl slowly relearned how to breathe and finally calmed down, as she drew her knees up and put her head down on them.

"Another dream?" The soft deep voice next to her asked.

"Oh 'Rion," She jumped at his voice, "I didn't think I woke you up."

"You didn't," He looked up at her, "I was already awake."

Prime watched his human mate for a few moments as she turned away and looked into the darkness.

"Please tell me about it." he pleaded.

"What's to tell?" She turned and looked back down at him, "It's the same as it has been the last few nights, pain, blood. It's always the same."

Optimus shook his head up at her, "I'm so sorry. I wish there was something I could do to make it stop, to make the memories go away."

"It's not the memories I mind," She looked away from him again, "It's the things I can't remember that worry me."

Prime looked at his human mate as she sat there next to him. She had changed some since he had last seen her. Foremost was her hair, it had once almost come down to her waist now hung just below her ears in the front and was shorter as it went back. She was also a lot paler than she had been and there was a strange quietness to her. Still Prime had made up his mind that he had no care about that. He loved this woman with his entire spark and so all he could do now was to stand by her as she worked her way through the darkness.

She lay back down next to him for a few moments, but it was clear that the girl wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, and she tossed and turned for awhile trying to somehow get back the notion to sleep that she had lost will for it and she finally gave up.

"Orion," She started.

"I noticed Angel," Prime sat up and looked at her. "Go on and get up if you're feeling restless."

"Thanks love," She tossed the covers off and headed in the direction of the human fresher that had long ago been installed in their quarters.

That was when Prime noticed something strange about her. She seemed to be walking like she was in some kind of pain, slowly very gingerly. He continued to watch her for a few seconds as she made it to the door way and stopped, putting one hand on the door and wrapping the other around herself. She was so wrapped up in this that she failed to notice Prime get up and head in her direction.

"Alright, what's wrong?"

Angel nearly jumped about two feet in the air and then calmed down.

"You startled me," She shook her head.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," He gently turned her around to face him, "What's wrong Angel?"

"I …I don't know," She shook her head again, "My stomach, its hurting."

Prime softened considerably and put his arms around her, "Its okay."

Angel let go of the door and melted into the embrace, "I still…I still can't believe."

"Don't worry about it," He held her tighter, "I'm not going anywhere."

The young woman closed her eyes and put her head against the man she loved for a few more moments, just enjoying the fact that this wasn't a dream and that he was indeed alive.

"Orion," She finally pulled away and looked up at him, "There are some things we need to decide."

"About what you saw," He stopped, "When you were…"

"Yes," Angel nodded to him, "I have to go into town and get some stuff, when I get back we need to figure out what we are going to do about it."

"Alright," He pulled back from her but kept hold of her hands. "First things first though. If you can't manage to go, if you're not recovered enough then I'll handle it."

"Orion…" She started.

"No buts this time," He grinned, "Now then, go get what you need. One of the guys will give you a ride into town. I'm going to go and see if everything has managed to not fall apart on poor Prowl."

She finally grinned at him, "I bet he's about to have a nervous breakdown."

"Ya think?" Prime grinned back.

The girl vanished into her fresher station and Prime went to his own to make him self presentable to the rest of the base. A while later he emerged only to find myself standing off to one side watching as Prowl did his best to handle the newest development that had been dropped on our doorstep this morning.

After we had managed to rescue Angel, Prowl had ordered others to go and find Wheeljack and give him whatever assistance that he needed in locating the other missing human female. Unfortunately, the irate engineer and his six prehistoric co-horts had other ideas about that subject. At this moment, the out come of those ideas were in the process of having a discussion with Prowl.

"Okay Silverbolt," The police car told him, "Slow down and tell me that one more time please?"

Prime appeared and walked over to me, I spotted him and nodded.

"Good morning Prime."

"Good morning," He stopped and proceeded to gape at what Prowl was talking to, "Do I even want to know?"

"Possibly not," I had to grin at him, "But all things that have happened this week taken into consideration, it's not that much of a shock."

This was when Silverbolt, who was very nearly at his last nerve, once again reiterated what had happened to him and the rest of his team.

"I SAID Prowl," He sighed, "That I DON'T think Wheeljack and the Dinobots want any help finding Alyssa."

Prowl looked the leader of the Aerialbots up and down and blinked, from head to toe the SST was covered in scorch marks. In more than a few places it looked as if some of his outer armor had actually began to melt. The rest of his team was in no better shape than he. Fireflight stood there riddled from one side to the other with what looked suspiciously like the remains of one of Wheeljack's needle shells. He was favoring one arm and kept wincing every time he moved in that direction. Air Raid appeared to have a rather large foot print right smack in the middle of his chest and Skydive's left side was dented in, in several places as if it had been bashed several times. The one that was by far in the worst shape was poor Slingshot. Two of his comrades carried him by the shoulders and ankles while he languished through what could be nothing other than bite marks, with teeth still embedded in two or three places.

"Help me …" He said pitifully

Prowl blinked at their condition and said the only thing that could possibly be said about the situation.

"No Kidding?"

I had to do my level best here to not start laughing at the poor young mech's expense. I have to admit I was less than successful at this and I truly felt awful about it, still anyone could probably have warned them what would happen when confronted by the Dinobots. But they were due credit for at least making the attempt. Prime himself was doing his best to not crack up as they hauled Slingshot to face the wrath of Ratchet.

Finally he was able to turn his attention to me.

"So have you made any sense out of what Megatron said?" I asked.

"Some," He took on a thoughtful look, "I think it has to do with the images that Angel saw while she was under the influence of the programming."

"How so?"

He stopped and thought for a second, "Ratchet has been looking at the program. It was designed with a specific outcome in mind, for Angel to see Megatron kill me."

Prime took a few steps away from me; I could tell that everything that had taken place was still weighing on his mind. The damage that had been done to his lifemate might very well be irreparable in some ways. However there was the slightest chance that something she saw might help us, so I did the best I could to draw Optimus' attention back to the subject, while still showing some compassion.

"Optimus, I know what happened was …"

He held up one hand and stopped me, "it's not that Alpha." He shook his head. "No there's more to it than just that. The program was set so she'd see a specific thing, but the way in which she saw it was something from her own mind. Angel created the how; they only gave her the why."

"So it's possible…"I prompted.

"Our whole relationship began because Angel has some kind of untapped PSI talent." He turned to look at me, "That's how my spark was able to contact her in the first place. So it's possible that in whatever strange dreams she had as a result of the programming, she may have very well seen the face of the next Prime."

"And now Megatron and his Decepticons have that information," I sighed.

"They have it," Prime confirmed, "So the only way that we are going to be able to stop them from using it is to get to Cybertron and find this person."

"I understand," I told him, "I've done what I can, hopefully the message will reach them and they will be able to evacuate before Megatron arrives."

"Let's hope so," Prime nodded.

We had a few more things to say on this subject that really had nothing much to do except working out the details. Prime eventually moved off to discuss this with Prowl and the rest of his command, which left me to once more try and contact those on our planet that would take steps to keep the individual now marked for death safe. It was nearly the afternoon when something occurred to all of us.

"Hey?" Jazz looked up from where he was with Prime, "Anyone seen Miss Angel?"

If anything that could have been said to set the base back into chaos it was that. Within the next five minutes everyone was up, out and searching for the girl and the one that had taken her into the city. Complete pandemonium reigned for a good ten minutes until someone noticed that the com was going off. Then all of us were in the process of falling all over each other trying to get to the com and find out if the person on the other end had any clue where the girl might have gotten to.

It turned out to be Bumblebee and he indeed turned out to know where Miss Angel had gotten too.

"Optimus?" He asked anxiously.

Prime promptly appeared and took the com, "Bee? What's going on?"

"Optimus," He shook his head sadly "Its Miss Angel."

I honestly heard the whole room freeze, and every single optic focused on screen.

"Sir the two of us were just out here," he shook his head distressed, "She went into the store for a few seconds and then came back out. She got about two steps out onto the sidewalk and then she fainted."

"She what?" Optimus asked.

"She passed out," Bumblebee said again, "They called the hospital and they came and got her. I'm outside right now. I finally got a chance to call you."

"Alright," Prime told him, "Just stay right there."

A few moments later all of us had made it to the Human hospital and Prime had gone in to try and find his Lifemate. He finally located her on the third floor and was in the process of going into see her when he was stopped by one of the human Doctors that were present.

"Sir," The man questioned.

"Can I help you?" Prime almost demanded of the man.

"Yes sir I need to talk to you for a few moments," He looked down at the clipboard he was holding and then back to Optimus, "You are here to see Miss Angel correct?"

"Yes sir," Prime confirmed. "She's my wife."

"Yes sir," The Doctor nodded, "Unfortunately I have some bad news for you."

"Is she going to be alright? What happened?" Optimus demanded again.

"Yes sir," The doctor told him, "The young lady was suffering from a rather bad internal infection. We were able to treat it and her body temperature has begun to drop back to normal, so the prognosis is excellent in that area."

"So what aren't you telling me," Prime prompted.

Inside the room Angel was waiting staring out the window just trying to relax when she heard the comment come from her Husband who was out in the hallway.

"WHAT?"

She winced and waited for him to step into the room, wanting him to come in to see her and tell her what she had for the most part already guessed. She was still looking out the window when she heard a noise and looked back to the door to Prime walk in.

"Hey there," She told him, "Sorry I worried you."

"Don't worry about that," Prime told her as he walked over to her, "I'm just glad that you're safe."

"So?" She looked up at him, "What did he tell you?"

"He… The doctor said…" He paused and tried again, "He said you got sick because of a infection."

"I see," She looked down at her hands, "You can tell me Orion, I'm not going to break."

He turned his face away from the girl and looked out the window.

"The doctor said that the reason you have an infection is because you didn't get treatment…"

"For a miscarriage." She finished softly.

"Angel…" He turned back around and looked at her, "Do you…Do you know what that means? What …. How … The ONLY way that could have happened?"

She bit her lower lip and did the best she could to try and get her emotions under control.

"Yes," she finally managed, "yes I do."

"Do you remember?" Prime asked.

The shook her head once more trying to hold in her emotions, "The only thing I remember are the images from the program, and what happened in the last few days."

"Sweet Primus," he shook his head, "How could …?"

She stopped and looked away from him, tears slowly forming in her eyes, "I'm sorry Orion. If you…" She stopped and swallowed, "If you don't want me…"

"DON'T!" Prime suddenly fiercely snapped at her, "DON'T you EVER, EVER think anything like that!"

He moved closer to her and took her face in his hand, "There is nothing in this or any other world that could change the way I feel about you Angel." He shook his head, "Don't you ever blame yourself for this. None of this was your fault."

She shut her eyes and pulled her self closer to him, "Thank you."

"No," he held on to her, "Thank you. Thank you for coming back to me, thank you for choosing to come back to all of this pain for me. Thank you for loving me."

The two of them sat there for a long time, just coming to terms with all that had happened. Just being with each other and taking comfort in the fact that no matter what they would always love each other.


	9. Chapter 9

If That's What It Takes: Epilog…

Several days passed before the human doctors finally pronounced that Miss Angel was again fit and ready to leave the hospital. During those few days, I think that word of what had happened got around the base very quickly and so each and every mech here took it upon them selves to try and help the girl as well as make sure that nothing like this could ever happen again.

The helping part was fairly amusing, and I do believe it contributed to the increasing mental instability of Portland General's staff. The first incident involved Optimus and several others repeatedly trying to sneak some kind of contraband into the woman for whatever purpose. Prime got thrown out with her guns, Prowl got thrown out with her laptop computer, the twins got thrown out for trying to sneak her in several things that I wont even mention. Even Bumblebee got kicked out of the hospital for trying to not sneak the girl in anything, But for trying to sneak out Miss Angel her self.

This got the attention of Optimus and he realized that it was probably not a good idea for her to leave until she was told to, so he took steps and set up the best guard he could think of. This consisted of posting both Superion and Defensor out side of the girl's window and the rest of the Autobots at every five meters in the hospital parking lot. I'm not sure that Angel her self found this too amusing but she did her best to put up with it.

Eventually though the girl was set free and she and Prime began to make plans to go back to Cybertron and find the mech from her dreams. It was decided that the two of them alone would have a better chance of finding this person and that they would be able to gather enough reinforcements on Cybertron if they needed it. I watched them preparing to leave and made my own decision to stay behind. This was something that the two of them had to face alone. It was something that only they could reconcile and if they succeeded something deep in my spark told me that everything that they had been through would be worth it.

This left most of the Autobots here to try and come to terms with that which had happened. Most of them knew that there would be a time when everything balanced out, when both Prime and his Angel were ready. Still there were those who thought that at the very least a lesson had to be taught. So it was on that dark and stormy earth night, that those of us still here at the ark realized at least two were missing.

At the jail where the Doctor responsible for all of this was still imprisoned, the man was cringing in fear as a bolt hit near by and plunged the cell he occupied into darkness. He stood there for a few moments thinking that there was something more to this than just the storm. When it finally became, at least to him, clear it was indeed nothing more than the storm. This turned out to be the newest in a long, long line of mistakes he had made in dealing with the Transformers.

Archevil had just settled back down on to the bunk when it finally registered that he was not alone. Hovering in the darkness of his cell, two pairs of ice blue optics looked down at the man with pure utter rage.

"Y..YOU!"

"What?" The first one snarled, "Did you think that you were going to get away with what you did?"

"Monster," The other one chimed in, "Did you think that we wouldn't figure it OUT!"

"I…I don't know what you're…" The doctor suddenly gasped as a metal hand clamped its self around his neck.

"Do you have any idea what you did?" The first voice asked, "She could have DIED!"

"Where you really that selfish," The second one added, "She's hurt so badly. The woman is doing a great job of pretending that she's not in pain but I can see it in her eyes."

"I…" He choked, "I didn…."

"Oh yes you did," The one holding him shot back, "Do you know what else?"

"Thanks to you…" The other almost sobbed, "Thanks to what you did and how you left her she'll never be able to have children. You stole the chance at that happiness from her forever."

"But… bu…" the doctor gasped again.

"But what?" The one holding him Shouted, "they would have found a way! Now thanks to you it will NEVER happen."

He saw the eyes of the one not holding him narrow, "We ought to kill you right now you monster."

He felt the grip on him slacken and Archevil finally slumped back on to his bunk, continuing to look up at the two pairs of optics in horror.

"You're not going to kill me?" He blinked, "but you said…"

"I know what we said," The one who had been holding him said, "but it's not our place."

"No," The second pair closed for a second, "No, you can live for now. Live for now and sit her, and wait and watch and wonder. Wonder what's going to happen to you and when."

There was another crack of lighting and a few seconds later the lights came back on. The evil man found him self alone and with a sense of dread in his heart deeper than anything he had ever experienced before. At some point he was going to have to pay, and he had a feeling that what ever payment was extracted from him when the time came would be something just as valuable to him as what he had stolen.

At the ark a while later all of us were wondering how Prime and Angel were doing, and if we were ever going to see Alyssa and Wheeljack again when some one returned.

Ironhide looked up from where he had been sitting and blinked at the pair.

"Hey Bee'," He nodded, "Hey Prowl, Where have you two been?"

Author's Notes: Sorry for the long delay folks! Thanks again every one for reading my latest. Hope you all liked this one even though it was a lot darker than some of the others I had done. Yet again this story was inspiered by a song. This time it was "If That's What It Takes" By Celine Dion. If any one would like the lyrics let me know and I will mail them to you.

RP1


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